November 23, 2009

* M'lady

A few years ago, I took a workshop with Tessa Nunn. It was an intensive nine to five, three day workshop. At the end of those three days, as my friend will attest to, I was speechless, numb, dumbfounded and absolutely struck dumb (more than usual, lol) in more ways than one. We drove home in silence simply because my brain had ceased to function!

M'lady came out of this workshop. She was painted from a live model. To me the model emanated the feeling of an old world Italian Mama, soft and warm, lovingly preparing her famous pasta for her boys. When M'lady was complete, I looked at her with amazement. She was anything but "soft and warm". She was a woman of substance! She seemed to have a strength to me, and even though she was not grounded visually, she was 'grounded'! She absolutely knew who she was.

My critic went wild that day. I 'hated' her, she was 'no good', in fact she was 'garbage'. Unlike the other paintings which came home with me from those three days, M'Lady escaped the rubbish bin, and I have grown to delight in her. She is framed and on my wall. When I applied for entry into the Victoria Academy of Art, I was told "Donna, when you painted M'Lady, you found your soul". I was accepted into the Academy, but was so intimidated by that statement, I couldn't attend and finally after much agony, withdrew. That fear thing again, the fear I could not live up to that statement.

Please visit Tessa's web site. http://www.tessanunn.com/ArtistStatement.php She's one of those amazing women. I love her work. Some of it is very influenced by eastern culture. Tessa is spiritual. She's on the 'path'. She was studying in New York on 9/11 and lived through the trauma of those tragic circumstances. At the time of the workshop, she was suffering from hearing loss, however, only to the male voice. Interesting! I see her website has been inactive for awhile. I wonder where the Universe has taken her? As it says on Tessa's website: